Makers Month: British Stationery Wishlist

You know we are suckers for stationery around here and Makers Month gives us the best excuse to search out the best of the British paper pushers to add to our most wanted list. Who are your favourites???

Happy Jackson Notebooks  /  Ohh Deer Plan of Attack note pad  /  Studio Sarah Greetings Cards  /
Oh Squirrel Pencil set  /  Pygmy Cloud Paper Tape  /  Nancy and Betty Weekly Planner   /  Blogtacular and Lollipop designs Planner  /  Undercover UK Leather Ring binders  /  Oh No Rachio Notebooks

Have a great weekend
Sammy xxx

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Love it: UK Craft Blogs #3

Another instalment of 'Our Favourite UK Craft Bloggers' for you today. I am writing to you today from sunny Austria, where I have been catching up on some blog reading as well as sightseeing, photography and a lot of relaxing. Don't forget to head over to these lovelies and say Hi and let us know your favourites in the comments below.

Miss Jojangles
Possibly the sweetest blogger we know. We fell in love with her whimsical life on her blog and even more so when we met her at Blogtacular earlier this year. We love her illustrations more than anything and we can't wait to see what's next for Jojo.

New Craft Society
We owe our trip to Liberty to these gorgeous girls (we are forever in their debt) and just adore their style, we can only dream of being this cool. Their attitude to crafts old and new is refreshing and their addiction to Liberty prints makes for some yummy crafty eye candy.

The Things She Makes
Jam packed with awesome tutorials, no faffy lifestyle stuff here, just pure unadulterated crafts... and we love it. Great for beginners and masters alike, great photos and easy to follow instructions make TTSM a brilliant place to visit on a rainy afternoon for a quick crafting fix.

I'm off to enjoy the last day here before we drive all the way home tomorrow (and the next day...)

Sammy xxx

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #2

Welcome to the second instalment of our favourite UK craft blogs, thank you for all your suggestions on our last post, we have made some great new discoveries and rediscovered some old favourites so thanks for all your suggestions, keep them coming. We have three more awesome blogs for you today, all based right here in the UK.

Fall for DIY

Fran is one of the bloggers we have known for the longest, one of our first ever reviews on our blog was for one of her previous businesses (she has a been a part of a few) Check My Box. We Love her gorgeous blog Fall For DIY. She has amazing style and great vision for using unusual materials for making stunning jewellery.

Knit me a Cake

Leanne is one of the sweetest bloggers we know and her blog is a place we love to visit. Her recipes are the reason we spend so much time over there, I made her Banana, toffee and pecan fudge loaf a few weeks ago, it was sooooo yummy! But we love her sewing and knitting tutorials too, head over and check out her amazing Sky Blanket project.

Lotts and Lots

Lotts hits it out of the park every time with her jewellery tutorials, you may have seen her embellished lace collar tutorial in  issue 40 of Mollie Makes magazine. Her Instagram feeds is one of my all time faves.

Who are your favourites, this is the second in a series of posts about UK based craft blogs, our favourite fellow Brits doing wonders for bringing crafts out of the dark ages. Tell us in the comments about your faves so we can include them in later posts and crush on their mad DIY skills of course.

Sammy xxx

Love it: UK Craft Blogs #1

We write a crafty blog, so it is only natural that we gravitate towards other creative folk, we have a looonnnggg blog roll on Bloglovin of blogs we love and we have shared some of our faves here before. We love bloggers and blogs from all over the world, a lot of our favourites are from across the pond in the USA, A Beautiful Mess, Sugar and Cloth, Lovely Indeed, Paper and Stitch and the list goes on, but in this series we want to give a shout out to our favourites from right here, our home, the United Kingdom!

Burkatron

Caroline is a beautiful fashion/craft blogger and self confessed nail art junkie, I always love the photography styling in her posts. Her DIY's are always pretty and super chic. Our fave recent post is this one about building your own terrarium.

Buttons and Paint

These two lovelies live just down the road from us in Reading, You may remember them from their guest post for us back in March or you may have popped over from our guest post on their blog. We love this recent DIY to make yourself a trimmings folder, a must have for any haberdashery hoarder.

Claireabelle Makes

We don't know how the lovely Claire manages to run her own (super cute) etsy shop, her blog and have a job, but she does it, and beautifully too! We are crushing hard on her Bicycle Bracelets at LiLiMi HQ.

Who are your favourites?  This is the first in a series of posts about UK based craft blogs, our favourite fellow Brits doing wonders for bringing crafts out of the dark ages. Tell us in the comments about your faves so we can include them in later posts and crush on their mad DIY skills of course.

Sammy xxx

Book Review: Craft, Show & Sell

I always love it when a book shows up on my Amazon recommended list that looks as beautiful as this one does. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but it's hard not to buy this gem for the cover alone, just look at it!!

The name of the book is pretty self explanatory but I'm gonna go ahead and tell you about it anyway. If you are planning to make stuff and sell it online, or at craft shows or you just like being nosey and seeing inside peoples craft rooms this book is for you. By far the best crafting 'advice' book for UK artists and designer/makers I have ever read, and I have read A-LOT of these kind of books.

Let me tell you why...
One. It is Beautiful! I know I have said that already but it is probably the prettiest (useful) book I have ever owned. It is full of colourful photography of gorgeous crafty goodness. It has been on my desk for weeks and I cannot stop picking it up and looking at it, like, everyday.

Two. It has stacks and stacks of really useful information in it. From storage suggestions for your craft supplies, to tips from real designers and artists who are already doing what you want to do. And when I say tips I mean real, useful, meaningful tips that will actually help with the steps you can take to make your dream job become a reality.

Three. As international as the world is now, it is so nice as a UK crafter to hear opinions from other UK crafters. The British craft industry is different from that of the rest of the world and it works in a slightly different way, so to have a book written for British crafters by British crafters, it is a refreshing perspective.

Four. There are sections for everything, not just the fun stuff.  Being your own boss is really brilliant, but it is a lot of hard work and I feel that this book (unlike many others) doesn't gloss over the sticky bits.

Five. It is all the things I love about craft in one book. It is pretty, well put together and actually useful.  It is the polar opposite of style over substance.  It is slick, well put together and it looks beautiful. (I know, I said it again!)

I would highly recommend adding this book to your wish list if you have plans to sell your crafts online or anywhere else.  If you like looking a pictures of beautiful crafts or if you like great tips on making your craft selling dreams come true. If you want to make your craft selling business the best it can be, use this as your Bible. Seriously.

Have you taken a look at this book? Do you already own it? I would love to hear what you think of it, leave a comment below or talk to us on Twitter @livelovemake

Sammy xxx


Disclaimer: ( for our lovely readers) I hate writing these because I feel that you already know, But as a little reminder. Our opinions are not for sale. We only write honest reviews. If we are sent products to review it does not guarantee a positive review or for that fact a review at all. We will always tell you if a review is sponsored, which means that the product has been loaned to us or given to us. This review is not sponsored. I bought this book of my own free will, not with the intention of reviewing it. Just wanted to share some joy.